<p>OP: The biggest advantage of Ross is its placement. In fact, I was amazed the way, the alumni network help the current students in the job market. In the current scenario, getting job placement ‘before graduation’ is a major plus point! I am afraid, UCLA is not as focused as Michigan in this respect.</p>
<p>Alexandre - you said you were an Econ major at U of M. Did you also attend Ross?</p>
<p>My daughter will be attending U of M this fall (unless lightning strikes and she gets in Princeton or Yale). She plans to double major in Econ and History. I think she would like to go the law school or academic route (at the moment). But she may wish to shift her emphasis later. Are the 55 credits at Ross similar to the Econ courses you took? What additional course work is there?</p>
<p>Also, my daughter wants to avoid many of the (what she refers to as) weeder courses. She’s currently a student at the International Academy in Michigan (#5 HS in the US per US News) and she’s got 2250 SAT scores and with a 3.8 GPA. Excellent IB test scores (as I understand it) in Econ will allow her to get credit for micro and macro economics. From your perspective, is this advisable? What courses would you try to avoid? What courses would you advise her to take? Are there any disadvantages (or advantages) of going the Econ route instead of Ross? Do the major firms also recruit from the Econ department as well as Ross?</p>
<p>I appreciate your perspective.</p>
<p>^I’m a sophomore in Ross right now. The econ courses are very different from the Ross courses. Econ is not business whatsoever and you learn very different things in the Econ department vs. at Ross. It’ll be impossible to avoid “weeder” courses as a freshman and sophomore at Michigan. If she’s planning on majoring in Econ, 101 and 102 definitely fit the bill as big classes on a curve where a lot of people struggle. Even if she places out of 101 and 102 through IB, 401 is required for the major and is considered to be one of the harder classes at the university. If she is trying for law school Ross probably won’t give her an advantage over econ coming out of undergrad, however if she enters the job market Ross is definitely the way to go. Visit the Ross and Econ department websites for info on the curriculum for both majors.</p>
<p>Important considerations:</p>
<p>You should realize that many undergraduate students decide to change their major while they’re in college. If your daughter did so, you’d be paying the Michigan premium for virtually no advantage. UCLA is far enough to confer the same ‘college experience’ and is generally viewed to be a peer of Michigan in academics, if not its better.</p>
<p>Another thing you should realize is that, if your daughter does want to go into business, the money she could save by going to UCLA could be put into going to a top-ranked MBA program (e.g. Anderson) And if she doesn’t, the money could be spent on a number of other things like savings for a graduate program.</p>
<p>As far as the actual program is concerned, although UCLA has no business school, biz-econ is highly regarded and recruited as such. It’s the most competitive major at UCLA with the average admit having a GPA of 3.93. An alumnus that I was having a conversation with the other day told me that a number of his fraternity brothers are CFOs now, and they were (biz?) econ majors at UCLA (but likely they all have MBAs.) If your daughter did internships, the accounting minor, and got a good GPA, she would probably have a world of opportunities available to her.</p>
<p>Another important consideration is fit. Would your daughter prefer a college town or a metropolis? Both have their advantages. A few advantages about living in Westwood include movie premieres that are held at our movie theater, celebrities that have taken classes here (James Franco, Shakira, etc,) some of the world’s most acclaimed faculty, and so on. Both universities are very different.</p>
<p>The most important consideration, I think, is where you want to work after you graduate. If your daughter wants to work in California, and Michigan degree may not have the same pull that a UCLA one will. (and neither will have the same pull as Berkeley, or even moreso Stanford.) I know UCLA grads whose degrees don’t carry the same weight in NYC, and Dartmouth grads whose degree doesn’t carry the same weight in LA. A degree will have its strongest pull in the part of the country that’s closest to it, so that should also be the most important consideration.</p>
<p>“My daughter is considering both UCLA (in state) and Michigan for an undergrad business program. Any comments on the strength of each school?”</p>
<p>Michigan is superior to UCLA in this area.</p>